How does 360° video work?

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How does 360° video even work? How can a camera see in all directions at once? We use multiple cameras and stitch the images together into a sphere. There are single-camera solutions like the VSN Mobile or 360Fly, but they have significant blind spots. Spherical video is made manageable by editing software, digital transmission, or online streaming, by flattening it out into an “equirectangular projection,” just as a globe is flattened into a flat map of the Earth.

- How does 360 degree video even work?How on Earth can a camera see in all directions at once?Well, for starters, we use multiple camerasand stitch their images together into a sphere.There are single-camera solutions like the VSN Mobilor the 360fly but they have significant blindspots.Even one-piece units like the Ricoh Thetaor the much more expensive Nokia OZOare actually using multiple camerasto capture every direction at onceto cover the entire sphere.Now this spherical video that we make is made manageablein editing, in digital transmission and in online streamingby flattening it out into a flat,equirectangular projection.

Just like a globe is flattened outinto a flat map of the Earth.Now equirectangular just means two by one.Two units wide by one unit high.Now this ratio will become more important later onwhen we get into editing.More on that to come.But once our multiple camera shots have been stitchedtogether into a sphere and flattened outinto an equirectangular rectangle, we can deal with themjust like normal video.Then we can add a bit of metadata to indicate thatthat video is a spherical video so then your playerknows which direction you're lookingwhen you're looking at it.

The motion sensors in your tablet or your smartphoneinside your head-mounted display will tell the videowhich way you're looking and show you just the partof the sphere you should be seeing wherever you look.When you put the phone in your head displaylike a Google Cardboard, the effectcan be extremely immersive.Now although this is a type of virtual reality,it's still not 3D because both eyes are seeingthe same spherical image.3D only happens when your two eyessee two slightly different images shotfrom the same distance apart as your two eyes.

This is a rapidly changing fieldand things are shifting all the time.But let me give you an overviewon some of the different camera options that are out there.At the very low end is the Ricoh Theta.This was one of the first viable 360 cameras out there.It's inexpensive.It's small and very easy to useand it shoots 360 stills and video.But the resolution maxes out at 1080p HD.Actually 1920 by 960 so it's a little shorter than HD.Remember it's equirectangular.

Now that resolution is plenty high enough for sharp imageswhen you're looking at the whole frame all at oncelike on a big screen TV or a computer monitor.But with spherical video, remember, that 1920 by 960 videohas to be stretched out over an entire virtual sphere.And when you look at it in goggles,all you're seeing is a small slice of it.Maybe 200 by 300 pixels.Way lower resolution than what you're used to looking aton video.Now the much improved Theta S has a lot going for it.It's easier to use.

It can shoot longer.It has a slightly better image quality,but the resolution still hasn't been improvedto a useful level for 360 video.Now people have been making 360 videos for a few yearswith various configurations of GoPro cameras.These have the advantage of shootingvery high resolution video.But multiple GoPro cameras can be fussy to work with.You've got all the different batteries,all the different lenses, all the different cards.Also stitching four or six or more GoPro camera imagestogether requires some very complex and effective softwareand can leave you with many zig-zagging stitch linesall through your sphere that are hard to avoid.

Samsung has just released a very neat little 360 camerathat shoots in 4k video.So it's much better looking than the Theta,but it requires either Windows computer softwareor Samsung phones to handle the files making it difficultto use for larger projects.At the very high end, there are cameras like the Nokia OZOand the Google Odyssey Jump camera.Now these shoot 360 and 3D at the same timeand stitch the files together for you automaticallybut these have their own issues and are pretty farout of reach for most smaller production companies.

The camera that I like to use is the Kodak SP360 PIXPRO.It's a matched pair of cameras that comes in a kitincluding free stitching software plus a bunchof various mounting equipment.These shoot in 4k so you have enough pixelsto give you acceptable resolution over your whole sphere.And they can be mounted and configured in a variety of ways.In this course, we'll go into depthon how to use this camera, but most of our techniquesand workflows will apply no matter what camera systemor editing suite you prefer.

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Released

10/28/2016

360° video is the next step in video production. Thanks to standards adopted by such major players as YouTube, Samsung, and Kodak, the technology has become good enough and cheap enough that both professionals and hobbyists alike can now produce immersive 360° content. However, it's one thing to shoot a raw 360° picture or video and share it, but it takes another level of understanding to be able to work with these files, and edit them into finished content.

This course explores some of the current camera options available to the 360° filmmaker, their relative strengths and weaknesses, possible applications of the 360° format, in-depth workflows to get you from shooting to finished project, and the best methods for sharing and viewing your 360° videos. Mark W. Gray helps you assemble and edit a final, polished 360° video using Final Cut Pro, but once you have mastered the basics, you can apply the lessons to your own preferred tools and workflows.